A/N: Howdy folks, I'm back after some delay with a new chapter. I apologize about the wait and would like to promise that my schedule is going to keep some semblance of uniformity but unfortunately due to some issues with life and work, updates will be somewhat more erratic from now on. Not to say there will be months between chapters, I still want to aim for about 2 to 3 chapters a month but it might vary from time to time, which I will try to inform you guys about when it does happen. I appreciate your guys understanding and just how incredible you guys are seeing as we are quickly approaching 100 follows!
On a separate note, I'd once again like to recommend two other stories that I've also enjoyed immensely for your reading pleasure. "Chronicles of Attack on Titan" by TheRealStarkiller for those wanting another great SashaXOC fic to satisfy your needs, and "Mystery" by Avalain Nightshade which while I'm not usually into LeviXOC fics has definitely ensnared me with how much pure quality the author has poured into that story! Check them out and of course enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you in the next one! ~Scipias
CHAPTER 18 – THE BATTLE FOR TROST: ACQUAINTANCE
It was an odd contradiction. To even allow humanity a chance at survival, they had to act as bait in part of a plan that was shaky at best. Of course, what other choice did they have? She couldn't think of a better way they'd be able to win the day, and even though she wasn't half as terrified to be suspended above a horde of amassed titans, it certainly wasn't enjoyable. Nevertheless, she played her part as always, after all she did have more experience around those monsters than most.
Annie Leonhardt perched nonchalantly on the side of the wall, her ODM gear suspending her a few meters above the dozens of gathered titans hungrily looking at her and two dozen other soldiers perched in similar position alongside her. The blonde had long been accustomed to being in the vicinity of these mindless monsters but that had also taught her to be wary of them. Some of the taller titans had made a number of leaping grabs at low dangling soldiers, and while casualties had been expected, they hadn't been expected to be that high this early on.
This had made her 'comrades' hanging alongside her more than a bit nervous. Both veteran Garrison soldiers and 104th Cadets anxiously floating in their own personal voids, more or less staring death straight in the face. Annie had always prided herself on being overly observant, her father always saying that being able to read a person was half the work of a fight, but it didn't take a mind reader to tell that most these soldiers were infinitely close to pissing themselves. In fact, the only one that seemed to be keeping their shit together, minus herself of course, had been a familiar face perched in the position next to her, an audible snort coming from his nose as he casually wiped a droplet of blood from it onto the inner collar of his undershirt.
"Your nose not agree with the altitude?" the blonde questioned with a half-hearted condescension.
The teen did not look at her instead concentrating back down towards the mass of titans, "Well not everyone can have a nose capable of cutting down titans, huh Annie?" Lukas said flatly.
"Asshole…" the girl muttered.
Honestly, Annie didn't care much for the retort, as most people wouldn't have risked insulting the blonde back in the first place, but she had always seen Lukas Schmidt as a kind of an outlier. It took a special type of idiot to willingly return to receive ass beatings for 3 years, still the black-haired teen had rarely turned down a sparring session with her during their training. Sure, he had improved somewhat, even taking her down a few spare times, but most of the time their bouts ended with him in the dirt, an outcome Lukas shared with Eren, whenever she sparred with him. Beyond that similarity though, the two seemed very different.
While reading your opponent was indeed half the fight, the blonde had also ascertained that how a person fought often reflected their overall personality and despite a most recent development, Annie believed the same could be said of both Yeager and Schmidt. Eren was a glass cannon, all attack and no defense which given the nature of his titan form was no surprise at all. He had learned and adapted but once he saw red, which was inevitable, there was no going back; while that made him a better fighter, Eren lost all spacial awareness at that point and that made him extremely vulnerable. Lukas on the other hand, was a much more tactical fighter. Much like herself, he had no problem waiting for an opening, clinically throwing strikes whenever he got the chance, but unlike herself, Lukas had a habit of being hesitant with striking. Annie figured this was out of some mutual acquaintance but at the end of the day it was still weakness. Also, the teen, while much less prone to going into the red than Eren, was not as vicious in his rage than his counterpart, Lukas became sloppy and in that he left himself exposed adding another weakness to his form.
This had neither been here nor there but what had really surprised the blonde was their attitude while fighting. Eren for all of his bravado, always seemed to be somewhat hesitant and a touch nervous going into their fights. While that didn't affect his intensity during their brawls, and while it was of course understandable given most people don't like eating dirt most of the time, Lukas on the contrary seemed to be a whole different animal. While the taller teen never seemed overly excited to spar with Annie, he was never scared too. He may have hesitated to go all out on his strikes, but never expected her to dampen her blows. Of the countless times Annie put Lukas into the dirt, he had never conceded, never let the bout end by his call, only to get up time and time again, never looking like he wanted to get up, but that he had to get up, almost like he was required too.
Annie respected that, if only by the tiniest sliver, but it did confuse her. So out of a slight curiosity but more out of sheer boredom at hanging there as titan bait, Annie turned towards the lean boy besides her.
"Oi…asshole." She sounded.
Lukas, once more, didn't spare her a look, "What do you want, Schnoz?" he replied sarcastically.
Annie let the jab glance off her, "Why'd you let me kick your ass so much during training?"
The blonde saw the teen raise an eyebrow in confusion, taking a quick glance over to her, "Good to know you're so focused on the mission right now…"
The girl shrugged, briefly looking down at the horde below with indifference before looking back at Lukas, "Only so much you can do as bait…"
There was a silence for a moment after that, Annie almost letting the conversation fall into the void, but after that moment Lukas replied, "Cause you kept asking."
Annie squinted her eyes at that, "Well that's not vague at all…" she replied flatly.
Lukas gave a half shrug, "Well, wasn't like you were gonna be social with anyone…just figured that was your outlet."
"I don't want your pity." Annie scoffed, "It's not your job to be friends with everyone…"
"Wasn't giving you any…" the boy rolled his eyes, "and just trying to be nice is all…"
The blonde looked unconvinced, "And what exactly did that give you in the end?" she said derisively.
"Nothing honestly…" Lukas shrugged nonchalantly, "maybe I'm slightly better in a scrap now but that's about it."
Annie grimaced, trying to push her point, "Now was being 'nice' really worth getting your ass handed to you for the past 3 years?"
The girl was surprised as the teen had a quick retort, "Didn't realize being nice had to be worth anything…" he snorted, his greyish-green eyes looking at the blonde with a half seriousness, "besides, been in more than enough fights growing up that I'm more than used to kissing the dirt…"
Annie looked incredulously at Lukas, seeing no hint of awkwardness or discomfort to indicate that he didn't fully believe what he had just said. She immediately thought of him as a fool for expending effort where there could be no possible return for him. Her philosophy, her way of life seemed to shudder away from that, after all this seemed to be yet another contradiction. It was evident that Lukas had a steel to him, a grit and stubbornness that marked him as a survivor like herself, but a selflessness that had seen him jump in front of a titan earlier that day. It was odd, he was odd, these people were odd, this island was odd, and she just wanted to go home.
"Well…" she sighed indifferently, "you failed. I'm not nor will I be any more social than before."
Lukas had his gaze set down below them, but the blonde saw him raise a single eyebrow, "I beg to differ."
"What are you getting at?"
The black-haired teen grew a tiny smirk, "I've never seen you start a casual conversation before…"
Annie shrugged, "Your point?"
Lukas glanced at her, "Tell me again, who started this conversation?"
A look of realization struck the blondes face and as soon as it did, she heard a small chuckle emanate from Lukas's mouth.
"Whatever…" Annie weakly tried to brush it off.
The boy ceased his amusement, focusing back on the serious situation at hand, "Hey, on a serious note, you're from the same town Reiner and Bertholdt are from, right?"
Despite the delicate nature and suddenness of the question, Annie gave Lukas a calm nod, "What of it?"
"Reiner got that note earlier today, and I don't think I've seen him so distraught about anything before. Just wondering if he was alright?" Annie could hear the hint of concern coming from the teen.
The blonde almost shuddered of the thought of the note but forced herself not to do so in public. They had not heard anything involving their 'town' in 5 years, nor had they expected too. For all she knew they could've just left them for dead, but that was unlikely due to the value of the powers they held. Still, she would have doubted the validity of the letter had the thing not been written in script that she hadn't seen in that half a decade. It had been short and to the point but written with enough authority to temporarily pause their entire operation.
A, C, F
I apologize for the lateness of this letter but then again, I was told you were to make contact with me immediately following infiltration. Perhaps this is due to J being somehow missing from your party as he as your leader might have been the only one privy to this information. Nevertheless, the Unit has given me the authority to take command of this operation and so I expect complete compliance from the three of you. The sudden emergence of the identity of one of the nine has been made known to the royal family and they have become wary, and any more push by us might send them deeper into hiding. Until the situation may be better assessed, A will not make a move to tear down the remaining gate in Trost and the three of you will remain incognito until these events blow over. My people will make contact when we are able to proceed.
X
"He is…" Annie replied, "he just found out one of his friends from the town died."
"Titan?" Lukas questioned somberly.
"Yeah…"
…
"Come on Yeager, don't be talking a big game and not backing it up!"
Lukas stood with Marco and Connie watching as the red plume of smoke flew into the air, and issue with the mission had occurred. The teens stomach dropped at the sight of the flare and a brief look at his two friends confirmed they felt much the same. The same could not be said for Armin though, as the blonde had immediately set into a sprint down the length of the wall towards the location of his two friends. The black-haired teen was of half a mind to join his comrade but decided against it. As he was sure Armin felt a sort of responsibility to his friends, Lukas felt one towards his and with both Jean and Sasha currently sitting halfway down the wall as titan bait, he wasn't too keen on leaving them.
Luckily though the dreadful silence brought on by the flare was temporarily relieved as the two jetted up the wall once more, neatly landing close to the three friends.
Jean was the first to speak, jogging up to the three, "What the hell's happening with Eren?"
The three of them gave a look of concern as Sasha walked up beside Jean, "Armin headed out alone…" Marco spoke up, "Hopefully…he's ok."
"Hopefully?" Sasha questioned, chiming in.
"It'll all work out." Marco assured, trying to be positive, "Eren will come through."
"He better…" Lukas mumbled a response, "…he is our best option here."
"Is it?" Connie turned to the taller teen, "Drawing the titans to a corner of town seems like a waste of time."
"The Commander wouldn't have had us do it if it wasn't important!" Sasha interjected.
"Sasha's right…" Jean added surprisingly, "Fighting titans is a battle of attrition. At this stage, they probably want to avoid losing soldiers."
At that the bald-headed teen turned from the group taking a few steps, "So the soldiers dying right now died for nothing?"
Lukas winced at Connie's statement looking down at the floor. Jean looked to respond to his comrade, his tone a little louder now, "Eventually, it'll turn into all out war. We need to preserve our troops until then by keeping sacrifices to a minimum. We have to trust that our leaders made the right call."
Lukas perked up at that, "Well look at you being all gung-ho." He half joked.
Jean took a glance at the city below, "Well you did make this whole big deal about Trost being our home after all Schmitty."
"Yeah. I suppose so"
"So that's how it is?" Connie spoke up once more, back still facing the group.
"That's how it is!" Jean replied with resolve in his voice.
At that, the shortest of the friends turned around, a renewed sense of vigor in his face, "Then let the five of us make sure our losses are minimal."
…
"I really got to stop letting Connie rope me into shit." Lukas spoke out loud to himself.
The teen ran full sprint down the street, a 10-meter titan slowly in tow. One of the Garrison NCO's had asked for volunteers to bait titans straying away from the corner of the wall back into the huddled mass. At Connie's behest, the five of them plus Annie surprisingly had volunteered and now the lot of them were ground level running for dear life towards the wall. Jean, Connie, and Annie had been sent a few blocks over to guide a couple titans that had gotten loose over there while the NCO had directed Marco, Sasha and himself to bait three of the monsters towards a nearby junction.
Lukas tried his best to keep a level head as he saw the intersection coming up a couple hundred feet in the distance. It was hard not to focus on the titan currently trying its best to eat him, the faint sound of unintelligible screaming piercing his head still. While he had sat suspended on the wall as titan bait earlier, he had tried to make some sense of the screaming, which he was certain came from the titans though nothing comparable to that sound came out of them audibly. He hadn't been able to determine much, minus the fact that some of the screams had different tones albeit were all still enough to break glass. In the end though, all he hadn't gotten from his small experiment was another nosebleed.
The black-haired teen reached the junction, titan still in tow but a slight ways behind him. He was to continue straight down the street he'd come which continued for a ways leading to the wall but as he cleared both corners of the adjoining street, he turned to see the progress of either of his friends. Looking right, Lukas saw Sasha who despite looking scared for her life had a safe lead on her respective titan, a 6-meter. The teen then turned right just in time to hear an audible crunch from the same direction, looking to see the body of the lifeless NCO fall into another 10-meter's maw. If that wasn't horrifying enough, Lukas then saw Marco who seemed to be standing there in shock as the titan refocused its gaze on the teen.
"MARCO!" Lukas yelled and instinctually not making the wrong call twice started in a sprint towards his friend.
Within a few seconds he reached his friend and, in his momentum, grabbed the taller boy's shoulder roughly, the shock seeming to startle Marco. The teen, half a head taller than him, looked down at Lukas, his eyes still seemingly glazed over in shock.
"Come on! Let's go!" Lukas yelled again despite being right next to him.
Marco again, didn't seem to respond as the titan was starting to get within a dangerous range of them.
"Fuck…we don't have time for this."
With that, Lukas didn't think instead mustering his strength reaching below his friend and struggled to lift him into a fireman's carry, equipment and all. Lukas shuddered upon lifting Marco, the teen being both heavier and taller than him and knew this was only possible due to the flow of adrenaline because of the situation. Lukas started off in the opposite direction, his pace not much faster than a brisk walk due to the weight. Luckily, the titans didn't seem to be in that much of a hurry anyway as the teen tried to cut the corner to the left as quickly as possible, the titan he had originally baited now having crossed the threshold into the intersection. Sasha and her titan thankfully had been on much the same trajectory and she jogged alongside the two as they reentered the street headed towards the wall with all three titans in tow.
Lukas felt a sudden jolt from the teen on his back and figured his friend had freed himself from that fog in his head. A moment later, that theory was confirmed when Marco spoke, "Lukas put me down! I'm good! I'm good!"
The teen did so, immediately reveling in the relief that came to his back despite still running full speed from the titans. Marco hand indeed seemed to have return to normal as he gave his friend a quick nod of thanks as the three continued on towards the wall.
…
"Lukas…I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me back there." Marco looked down shamefully, rubbing the back of his head as Lukas and Sasha sat leaned up against one of the many supply boxes that sat atop the wall.
"You got nothing to worry about Marco, its fine." Lukas replied.
The taller teen sighed, "It's not though, I hesitated. As a soldier I shouldn't be doing that!"
The seated teen looked up at his friend, "As a person you shouldn't be seeing a comrade being eaten right in front of you…so I figure that's a completely acceptable response."
Marco still seemed distraught though as he paced slowly back and forth. Lukas seeing this, slowly rose to his feet and put an arm on his friends' shoulder to steady him.
"Marco…it was one time." He spoke softly, "You would've done the same for me, for any of us. You also seem to forget that it was yours and Armin's plan that got us out of the HQ today."
The taller teen seemed to calm at that, "Yeah…I guess so. Next time I won't hesitate!"
"I'm sure…" Lukas smiled, "…After all, we do need a leader like you!"
Marco scratched the back of his head, "Naw…you and Jean are more leaders than I could ever be."
The shorter of the two rose an inquisitive eyebrow, "I get Jean, but I'm not cut out for that kind of stuff."
"I beg to differ…" Marco smirked, "Jean may be good at organizing and leading people but you're great at keeping everyone's head on straight."
"Huh?"
"Marco's right!" Sasha spoke up, rising besides them, "You're the one usually checking if everyone's ok during the fight LuLu!"
Marco nodded adding, "Yeah, I think that's just as important while leading!"
"I'll take your word for it…" Lukas chuckled, rubbing his back, "Tell you what, you can pay me back by having a drink with me when this is all over, you did take it a lot better than Connie."
Marco blushed slightly, "I guess…that's the least I could do."
Lukas smiled at that before he heard an audible gag from Sasha besides him, "Oh great…your mouth will stink again" she exclaimed sarcastically.
"Thinking about my mouth again Sash?" the black-haired teen questioned slyly.
"Nope…" the brunette replied just as boldly, "Are you thinking of mine LuLu?"
At that, the teen blushed a slight shade of red which the brunette briefly delighted in. The moment faded though as the sound of Connie and Annie zipping up to the top of the wall alerted the trio. As the two landed though, something was evidently wrong as the two looked shocked back down at the city below.
"Jean!"